Not long after John Paul II died, I received an apologetics question from someone who was corresponding with a hard-core Traditionalist—"probably SSPX" was how the Traditionalist was described to me. My inquirer reported that his correspondent believed John Paul II was "the worst pope ever," but let's allow the Traditionalist to put into his own words his position on the man who has since been canonized, and is now known to the world as St. John Paul II:

2013 was quite a year for Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Elected in March after the surprise resignation of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope Francis has taken the world by storm. It started as soon he stepped out onto the balcony to be introduced to the world as Pope Francis, when he eschewed the papal mozzetta and put on the traditional papal stole only when he was ready to bless the crowds. Even his...

In 2005, I was in a colleague's office when another colleague came running down the hall, breathlessly announcing, "There's white smoke!" I ran for a radio in my office, but an announcement came over the intercom. "We're gathering in the conference room!" Table and chairs were shoved aside, people stood or sat on the floor, all eyes were glued to a tiny TV set that had very poor reception.

When "Josephum" was announced as the new pope's first name, I sucked in my breath. At the word...

Around the time Pope Benedict XVI released Summorum Pontificum, which expanded the use of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite of the Mass, I attended a Catholic conference at the Old St. Ferdinand Shrine in Florissant, Missouri. The shrine boasted a lovely pre-Vatican II altar that inspired a...

I love reading conversion stories. I've read so many of them that I sometimes don't remember exactly what a convert said about his journey, only that he entered the Church. That's the case with a story I remember reading years ago, probably in an anthology of conversion stories. I don't remember a lot of the details, only an extraordinary tale of answered prayer.

This convert had attended a famous Protestant seminary in the U.S., one which had been seeing a surprising number of its...